Sean J. Elliott Department of Chemistry, Boston University 590 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA 02215 U.S.A. elliott@bu.edu

Welcome. Starting in 2002, I have made myself a happy home in Boston, at the Department of Chemistry at Boston University, as an Assistant Professor. My research group has taken root, and in the classroom I have taught classes ranging from Freshman Chemistry to Physical Methods in Inorganic Chemistry. Before my time in Boston, I was living for a few years in Oxford, England, where I was an EMBO-funded post-doctoral scholar in the laboratory of Prof. Fraser A. Armstrong, studying protein film voltammetry within the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, of the University of Oxford. Welcome to my world. Scientifically, I am interested in biological redox chemistry, metalloprotein structure and function, and the ways in which biological systems interact with metal ions -- whether metal reduction for bacterial anaerobic respiration, or metal recognition and uptake. In my research group, we use a wide-range of biochemical and analytical tools, to investigate redox-active proteins, enzymes, and biochemical pathways. Our repertoire of interests features the electrochemical technique of protein film voltammetry (PFV). PFV is a unique tool, and during my post-doc I used it to study many different proteins and enzymes which transfer electrons in biological systems. Via this technique, one is able to examine the ET reactions involved, as well as winkle out new insights into how enzymes work as machines. Below (eventually) you will see some links to some of the projects my lab is currently exploring: cytrochrome c peroxidase from Nitrosomonas europaea, thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductases, as well as copper proteins of the Cu-efflux pathways of E. coli -- just to name a few. I received my Ph.D. from the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Caltech in 2000, under the supervision of Prof. Sunney I. Chan, studying the particulate methane monooxygenase from Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath). Caltech is a wonderful place, and through my time there, I was able to work on techniques as far ranging as gene cloning and sequencing, to membrane protein purification, to XAS and EPR spectroscopies. Prior to my time in sunny Los Angeles, I was Chemistry and English major at Amherst College, in lovely Amherst, Massachusetts, where I read many books, wrote what I thought about them, played volleyball, and studied Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Joan Broderick, now at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. I grew up amongst the sun and cactus and mountains of Tucson, Arizona. Go Cats.